Monday, November 5, 2012

Election Edition Reader Poll: Best American Whiskey Company

The election is upon us, and that means a big decision for everyone: If you could only drink whiskey from one of the major American whiskey companies for the rest of your life, which would it be?

Here are the rules. You must pick one of the companies below. All of the other companies will cease production and there will be no whiskey available from them. Make your choice in the comments. Please mark your ballot carefully to avoid election night discrepancies.

Wild Turkey: You get Wild Turkey bourbon and rye plus the Russell's Reserve bourbon and rye.

Footnotes for the whiskey geeks:

1. Van Winkle is an independent company and not all of their whiskey is made at Buffalo Trace, but I'm making the call to include them with Sazerac (which doesn't mean it will be any easier to get a bottle, by the way).

2. Current releases of Rittenhouse Rye are still made at Brown Forman but it's a Heaven Hill product and is now being made at Heaven Hill again so it goes with Heaven Hill.

3. If Diageo wins, Four Roses will stay open for the sole purpose of making the bourbon for Bulleit.

4. LDI isn't a choice because they don't market anything of their own, but if you love LDI rye, you can still get it in Bulleit and Dickel ryes if you pick Diageo.

5. Assume no independent bottlings will be available other than those produced by the companies listed above, so don't assume you will still get plenty of Heaven Hill from Willett's or other independent bottlers.

6. Be sure to let me know if you're from Ohio so I can make sure your vote counts more than everyone else's.

They have great whiskey at reasonable price points all along the spectrum. Can you beat EWB for $12? EC12 & EWSB for $25ish? PHC for $80? Saz/BT may have more variety at the high end, but I can't get any of that now, let alone if it was the only distillery out there.

Buffalo Trace is an obvious choice and I wouldn't be sad if that were the one to stay... but I'm going to be crazy and pick Jim Beam. Booker's, Baker's, and Knob Creek are some fine drinking on the cheap (relatively), and readily available. Beam Black is like the Heinz ketchup of bourbon, and Maker's Mark is reliable.

"If you could only drink whiskey from one......." If I can correctly assume that one can safely replace "drink" with "buy", then I am going to have to be a Beam man. Close edge to Heaven Hill. I love BT, but if I am on the hook to pay for everything, then BT falls short due to tight supplies and overly inflated prices for their most prized whiskies.